(Get) A Sporting Life

Cool story from Steve Goff : D.C. United goalkeeper Bill Hamid didn’t recognize the number when his cellphone rang Wednesday. So he let the call go to voice mail. “I thought it was a telemarketer or something,” he said after Thursday’s practice at RFK Stadium. Hamid ate lunch and then checked the message. It was from Juergen Klinsmann, the new U.S. men’s national soccer team coach. “I was shocked,” Hamid, 20, said. “As soon as I heard the voice, I knew it was him. I didn’t listen to the rest of the message. I put the phone down and was like staring into a far-off land. I started crying a little bit.” Hamid had been chosen to join the national team ahead of next Wednesday’s friendly against Mexico at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia — the first senior call-up of his career. Good for Hamid, and justly deserved. And, good for Klinsmann. I didn't blog on his appointment before, but I must say I was pleased US Soccer finally ended the courtship and consummated this relations...

Well, at least a DC United player won something this season: D.C. rookie Najar wins MLS award D.C. United's 17-year-old star midfielder Andy Najar has been named the 2010 Major League Soccer Rookie of the Year. Najar is the second player in D.C. United history to capture Rookie of the Year honors. The young Honduran joins 1998 winner Ben Olsen in the United honors list. Olsen became United's interim coach midseason and guided the young Najar who scored five goals and an assist in 26 League matches (22 starts). In all competitions, Najar netted seven goals and registered two assists. Najar is the first rookie to win the MLS award after coming directly from a club's youth academy. The play of Najar was far and away the brightest part of a United season which had to be the most frustrating in their history. This is not a situation where Najar just stood out because the rest of the team struggled so badly - well, OK, that is a part of it, but anyone who saw Najar's game de...

Yikes. I mean yikes : Breaking more than a decade of silence, former U.S. soccer coach Steve Sampson said Tuesday he dropped John Harkes from the national team roster two months before the 1998 World Cup because the American captain was having an affair with the wife of teammate Eric Wynalda. Harkes has long denied having an affair with Amy Wynalda. Wynalda brought up the situation Monday night during a discussion on "Fox Football Fone-In" about a scandal in England over an alleged relationship between current English captain John Terry and the former partner of Wayne Bridge, his teammate on the national squad. Sampson told The Associated Press on Tuesday he was glad the story was coming out now because "maybe people will have a little better of an understanding of what happened in the final months leading up to the World Cup." --- Wynalda said he spoke out during the program he co-hosts on Fox Soccer Channel because he was asked about Terry, who has been front-page...

Good news for a change : USA midfielder Clint Dempsey suffered "moderate damage" to a ligament in his right knee and will not require surgery, Fulham officials announced Tuesday evening. Dempsey, a key element in the American effort and Fulham's most impressive player this season, was hurt over the weekend, raising fears that he would miss the World Cup. However, in a release posted on its Web site, the club said that "early indications are positive in that no operation is required. At this stage, it is thought that the injury will not prevent him from featuring for Fulham, prior to the end of the season." Lyle Yorks, Dempsey's agent, told the Insider: "The results [of the scans] show that he will be back playing for Fulham this season ahead of the World Cup. The nature of the injury is not as serious as it was reported after the Blackburn game." Added USA Coach Bob Bradley: "We are confident that Clint will be ready to be an important part of...

Shit....not again: Dempsey Crisis Watch Dempsey had played very well in the first half of Sunday’s match against Blackburn and nearly gave the Cottagers a lead. But, in the 62nd minute, the Texas native limped off the pitch. Blackburn went on to defeat Fulham 2-0 but, more importantly, Dempsey could have a serious knee injury to contend with just five months before the World Cup. Fulham Manager Roy Hodgson said the injury did not look good, mentioning that the winger could have cruciate ligament damage in the knee. An injury to the knee ligaments could sideline Dempsey for months but there won’t be a definitive answer until Monday. USA fans have to be holding their breath for the next 24 hours because, judging by early reports, the prognosis does not look positive. What the hell did we do to be so snake bit? First Charlie Davies damn near dies, then Onyewu's knee gets shredded, and now Dempsy's knee explodes. The trouble with the US side is we have no depth to speak of at any p...

You know, if the US had just got outplayed by Brazil and lost 2-0 I wouldn't have minded. I could have said, "Hey boys, good job. You really proved yourself." But this????? This is a choke job of the first order and as dis-spiriting a loss for US fans as can be imaginable. Oh, I know the game isn't over yet. But, trust me, it most definitely is over.

OK, I've had a couple of hours to decompress from that surprisingly tense semi-final. And I say "surprisingly tense" because I really wasn't sure we were gonna be in this match for long. I know Spain didn't look great against Iraq (or South Africa for that matter), but I chalked that up to them taking it easy waiting for the knockout stages. Yes, the US played a great game against Egypt, but, c'mon it was Egypt. Don't get me wrong, they are a good side, but they are no Spain. Anyway, here are some of the highlights from the press roundups: New York Times : Unlike that loss to Brazil last week, though, the Americans were confident, not nervous, in the opening minutes Wednesday. They bothered Spain with early high pressure, and the defense remained alert and cohesive throughout. By kickoff, the temperature had dipped near freezing early in the Southern Hemisphere winter, and Spain’s attack immediately congealed. Tackling by the United States was superb, defe...

...but I know more about soccer then the motherfucking idiots that FIFA allows to ref international tournaments. There have been three offsides calls on the US that were obviously onside (by a yard or two in each instance.) Now there is yet another straight red card (to Bradley) that was complete and utter bullshit. (Not even a foul as Bradley won the ball fair and square...but hey, he's just a greasy American I guess.) It's a fucking joke. BTW, the US has played great, and they deserve the win against Spain. Yeah, I mean that.

Saw this today from the AP: U.S. phenom Adu told to start playing regularly With the hype largely behind him, Freddy Adu is being told he needs to start playing regular club football to continue his development as a key member of the United States' squad. A two-year spell in Europe with Benfica and Monaco, spent mostly on the bench, has helped dampen much of the spectacular fervor and unrealistic predictions of superstardom that greeted him as a 14-year-old professional athlete.... He played just 169 minutes over 10 matches on loan at Monaco this past season and is set to return to Portuguese side Benfica, which paid Major League Soccer $2 million for him in 2007. Even so, his one goal in 13 international matches would be more than respectable for most young strikers who rarely play at club level. But his immigrant background and precocious talent long since led sponsors and agents to see him as a perfect marketing figure and trumpet him as the United States' first true footbal...

Sheesh. Now we are down to Honduras early. I'm thinking Bradley needs to be fired, even if the US comes back in this game. This team is terrible and there is no reason ti should be. They certainly have seemed unprepared, and that falls on the coaching staff, like it or not. Besides, I think the USMNT has outgrown our domestic coaches. We may need to have an outsiders eye. At least they would be able to see that Mastroeni is not good enough.

CONCACAF should outlaw World Cup qualifiers on astroturf. The surface in Costa Rica is a joke. Its clown soccer. And while, yes, Costa Rica is playing better clown soccer than the US...who gives a shit? Its clown soccer!

...and the US is down two to Costa Rica, and Pablo Mastroeni is quickly becoming my new least favorite USMNT player. The game has passed Pablo by. Way passed him by. My God this is ugly.

I guess the US likes home cooking. Here is Steve Goff on the win over T&T : Three goals for Jozy Altidore. Three assists for Landon Donovan. And for the U.S. men's national soccer team, three more points in its continuing pursuit of a 2010 World Cup berth. Altidore, 19, became the youngest player in U.S. history to record a hat trick as the Americans responded from a sub-par performance over the weekend and defeated Trinidad and Tobago, 3-0, Wednesday night before 27,959 at LP Field. He staked the United States to a 13th-minute lead with a one-timer from six yards, blended power, precision and a clever touch in the 71st, and capped just his ninth international appearance with a shot from distance that slipped under a beleaguered goalkeeper in the 89th. Four days after scoring during a second-half comeback that resulted in a 2-2 tie at El Salvador, Altidore kept the Americans (2-0-1) atop the six-nation standings and on pace to earn one of three automatic berths in next summer...

World Cup qualifying continues for the USMNT tonight when they take on T&T in that well known soccer hotbed Nashville, Tennessee. All I can say is I hope we look better then we did over the weekend against El Salvador ("The Fighting Floppers"). Nothing is more frustrating then watching the national team struggle because they do not have the right players out there. For example, how many sub-par performances do we need to sit through before Bradley realizes that Brian Ching is not up to the standard of the international game? I know, in general, you can get away with starting Ching in games against CONCACAF competition, but shouldn't we be building towards a higher level of play? I'm sorry, but Ching is not "the poor man's Brian McBride." Ching is Ching, and that simply isn't good enough. Also, Bradley's decision to start Guzan last time out was a poor one. This is nothing against Guzan really, but he hasn't been playing for his club side ...

Well, as predicted, there was not a lot to learn from playing Barbados. The US scored three in the first half and added five more after the break, while Barbados knocked the ball around a little bit with looks on their faces that said, "I sure hope I don't get hurt." You couldn't even tell what we are doing with our midfield exactly because they moved Beasley around so much, playing him centrally from time to time. I think they were giving him a break as he's just coming back from injury, which makes sense. There is no reason to run your legs off against Barbados. My man of the match would have been Michael Bradley.

Despite Southlandish's forebodings I will not be laying waste to his musings on the state of the USMNT. Indeed, if you have watched the last six months worth of US play you should come up with something like the pessimism voiced in his post. However, I do offer some hopeful caveats. 1) The fact we haven't played a meaningful match in some time can mask real development. The last competitive match we played was last July 5th in the Copa, and even that was played with a "B" team of mostly MLS players. You have to go back to the Gold Cup final against Mexico (June 24th, 2007) for the last time the "A" team played for anything. Friendlies play their role, and they are certainly fun for the fans, but you can read way too much into them for good or ill. I was in the crowd that saw the US beat Argentina 1-0 in a friendly back in 1999. How much did that really tell us about the state of American soccer? Not a whole hell of a lot. The next competitive matches we pla...

Steve Goff (as usual) has the news : For those of you tired of watching the U.S. national team play Mexico, Sweden and Poland, you are in for a treat this summer. (No, I'm not talking about the showdown with Barbados or Dominica in June, although I know you are fired up for the start of World Cup qualifier.) We know the Americans will play at Spain. And we learned this week that plans are close to being finalized for friendlies against England at Wembley (May 28) and Argentina at Giants Stadium (June 8). Not bad, eh? Now that is acceptable. Oddly, the friendlies might generate more heat than the World Cup quals will, at least from the US side of things. It's gotta be hard to get up for a thrashing of Barbados, who will probably put 11 players behind the ball, along with a sofa, a refrigerator and a couple of cows. But playing England in Wembley?? Even a 2 or 3 to nil setback promises to be a hell of a lot more interesting. Argentina always makes for a tense match. I was in RFK ...

...who can make the argument to FIFA that the United States (and presumably Canada as well) are not in North America at all but are really part of Europe and thus the US Men's National Team should be playing in UEFA. The truth is I'm sick and tired of the racist refs the US has to put up with in CONCACAF. The entire region is the UN writ small, except instead of Iran and North Korea being named the heads of "Human Rights" Commissions we have tiny dicked refs with chips on their shoulders because their homeland hasn't quite mastered the wonders of indoor plumbing. It ruins any enjoyment of watching the game. For example, in the first half of tonight's game we already have had a beautiful Clint Dempsey goal waived away and a yellow card handed out to Bradley...each for the same reason as far as I can see: playing soccer while Anglo. It simply isn't worth it to wait around for the chance for the US to frogstomp the homelands of these refs whenever they pop...

Good God am I sick. But, in an act that displays a seriously misplaced sense of duty, I dragged myself into work today...not that my students were happy about it. My head is pounding, my kidneys feel like Albert Pujols is taking a few practice swings in their general direction, and I'm pretty sure my ramblings about Aristotle in the last class were incoherent. Hell, that wasn't even my philosophy class, who are reading Plato anyway. Still, I do know this. I still want to beat the crap out of Mexico tonight . I'll especially be interested to see if his time in the EPL has had an affect on Clint Dempsey. He can be such a pest when he is on his game, I'd love to see him drive our southern neighbors nuts.

I haven't had much time to write lately (starting a new job don't ya know) but I've caught a few games of late.....to wit: I. The Cards have been playing pretty well considering the starting rotation is a complete mess. I have to wonder if this team has the ability to win big games when push comes to shove. II. Mizzou is 2-0, as I predicted, but they are playing exactly like I thought they would play. The offense is something to watch...sometimes. The defense is mostly offensive. The team still lacks any semblance of a "killer instinct" which will spell trouble...yet again. III. The U.S. played pretty well against Brazil right up to the point we scored the first goal. After that we were pretty dire....especially up front. ("Where have you gone Brian McBride, a nation turns its lonely eyes to you...") IV. The DC v. Chivas match on Thursday had to be the worst game played in MLS this season. BORING. UPDATE: I forgot to add...did you notice the Mizzou game ...